11 


\ 


r 


jsr 


is 
J? 


a  VT»v<8V»  Vi>*rs  a 


§ff 


'  itSMAINn  Ml    • 


» 


y 


o  SANTA  eASaAllA  * 


o    tMt  UNtv«yTY    e 

o 
5 


O  SANTA  KAUARA  " 


tT, 


19-b 


•  SANTA  BAit6AltA  «, 


/  \ 


ivaan  jhi  « 


\ 


{.    TWt  UNIVHSSITY    o 


as 


B 


iL 


•  SANTA  tAUARA  • 


;is«iAiNn  jHi   c 


\  _._  X 


e  v«vfl»v«  viMVS  e 


/ 


o 

< 
w 


O    UJSDJMNn  3Hi    •, 


e  vawiiv*  yiNTS  e 


9 


3f\ 


O    ADSVBAINn  3Ht    » 


O    iO  A«Ya«n  3Hi    « 


\ 


o    TMf  ONIVfKSrTY    o 


/ 


y 

£ 

9 
5 
o 

> 

> 
z 

lii 

Z 

^ 
^"^1 

i 

5 

•  SANTA  BARBARA  «. 


/  \ 


«  JO  A«vnn  3H1  « 


\ 


site  of   the   Crown   Coffee   House   and   Fidelity  Trust   Co.    Building   in   1916 


lW 


Cflrnmn  Cdoffpp  Ifouae 


A    Story  of  Old  Boston 


BY 


WALTER   K.   WATKIXS 


Published  by 

FIDKMTY  TRUST  COMTANV 

Boston 

l'.M7 


M 


Copyright  1917 
Henderson  &  Ross 


Copyright  1917 
Fidelity  Trust  Company 


■I 


4gorniiori> 


In  presenting  this  history  of  one  of  Boston's 
old  taverns  we  not  only  give  to  the  reader  its 
ancient  history  hut  also  show  how  the  locality 
developed,  at  an  early  day,  from  the  mud  flats 
of  the  water  front  to  a  business  section  and 
within  the  last  quarter  century  has  become  the 
centre  of  a  commercial  district.  This  story  of 
the  site  of  the  Fidelity  Trust  Company  Buildint*, 
once  that  of  the  Crown  Coffee  House,  is  from  the 
manuscript  history  of  "Old  Boston  Taverns" 
prepared  by  Mr.  W.  K.  Wat  kins.  Pictures  and 
prints  are  from  the  collection  of  Henderson  £? 
Ross.   Photographs  by  Paul  J.  Webber. 


4-. 


!l 


^'^WX. 


'•^^'ll^r'   ir 


Ml'      '  SI...    I 


•v^;s 


i..j.-;-b.>]l^|^ 


him 


State   Street,   with   the    Crown   Coffee    House   Site 
in   the   middle    background,    1916 


The  High  Street  from  the  Market  Place 


/ye 

Crcywn 

Coffee 


House 


^IN  1635  the  High  Street  leading  from 
^  the  Market  Place  to  the  water, 

with  its  dozen  of  low  thatched- 
roofed-houses  was  a  great  con- 
trast to  the  tall  office  buildings 
of  today's  State  Street.      One 
of   the   latest    ocean    steamers 
would  have  filled  its  length,  ending  as  it  did,  in 
the  early  days,  at  the  waterside  where  Merchants 
Row  now  extends. 

At  the  foot  of  the  Townhouse  Street  as  it  was 
later  called,  when  the  townhouse  was  built  on 
the  site  of  the  Old  State  House,  was  the  Town's 
Way  to  the  flats. 

At  low  tide  flats  extended  several  hundred 
feet  into  the  river  or  harbor.  At  an  early  day 
the  first  settlers  along  the  waterfront  were  given 
leave  to  "wharf  before"  their  properties  into  the 
harbor.  Between  the  Town's  Way  before  men- 
tioned and  the  Town  Dock  (Dock  Square)  were 
half  a  dozen  properties  with  this  privilege.  Next 
the  Town's  Way  was  the  warehouse  and  wharf 
of  Edward  Tyng,  a  prominent  merchant  of  the 
town. 


Page  seven 


Thomas  Venner,  the  Cooper 


Among  his  buildings  was  a  brew  house,  and 
next  north  of  him  was  the  wharf  of  Thomas 
Venner,  cooper,  who  was  kept  busy  on  the  beer 
barrels  of  his  neighbor  and  the  casks  in  which 
fish  were  shipped  to  England  and  the  West 
Indies.  Venner  had  come  to  Salem  in  1638,  but 
evidently  his  restless  religious  spirit,  which  later 
brought  him  notoriety,  caused  his  removal  to 
Boston  in  1644.  In  1648,  he  with  other  coopers 
formed  a  Coopers'  guild,  similar  to  the  trade 
guilds  in  England,  the  earliest  trade  organization 
in  Boston.  His  religious  beliefs  prevented  his 
admittance  to  the  Boston  Church  and  in  October, 
1651,  he  sailed  from  Boston,  The  General  Court 
said  of  him:  *'Venner  (not  to  say  whence  he  came 
to  us)  went  out  from  us  because  he  was  not  of 
us."  In  1657,  he  had  become  leader  of  a  band 
of  fanatical  religionists  in  London  who  styled 
themselves  "Fifth  Monarchy  Men."  They  held 
the  belief  that  four  great  kingdoms,  Assyrian, 
Persian,  Macedonian  and  Roman,  after  dominion 
over  the  world,  had  passed  away,  and  they  were 
to  establish  a  fifth,  the  new  kingdom  of  Christ, 
the  Millenium. 

After  four  years'  disturbances,  in  January, 
1661,  Venner  proclaimed  the  establishment  of 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  and  proclaimed  the  killing 
of  those  who  resisted  his  plans.  With  500  fol- 
lowers he  rushed  through  London's  streets  and 
killed  innocent  citizens.  A  force  of  volunteers 
and  the  city  militia  surrounded  the  remnant  of 
\^enner's  forces  and  twenty  leaders  were  tried 


Page  eight 


I 


The  Fifth  Monarchy  Riots 


and  all  but  four  sentenced  to  be  drawn,  hanged 
and  quartered.  A'enner,  with  nineteen  wounds, 
received  in  encounters,  was  drawn  on  a  sledge 
from  Newgate  to  Coleman  Street,  where  his 
meeting  house  was  located.  There  he  was 
hanged  and  quartered  and  the  head  of  the 
Boston  cooper  was  set  upon  a  pole  on  London 
bridge.  Edward  Tyng,  his  neighbor,  was  more 
of  a  conformer  to  the  religion  of  the  town  and 
accumulated  worldly  goods  in  his  trade  and 
mercantile  pursuits.  By  trade  he  was  an  uphol- 
ster, and  came  from  the  parish  of  St.  Michael's, 
Cornhill,  London  —  Cornhill  was  the  settlement 
in  London  of  the  Upholders  or  Fripperers, 
dealers  in  second-hand  clothes.  They  were  also 
dealers  in  second-hand  skins  and  furs.  By  the 
middle  of  the  14th  century  they  dealt  in  cushions, 
portable  cupboards,  curtains,  feather  beds,  and 
carpets,  and  even  furnishings  for  funerals.  By 
the  17th  century  they  had  become  furniture 
warehouse  men.  Besides  this  trade,  Tyng  had 
l)ranched  out  and  become  one  of  the  early 
merchants  who  were  the  pioneer  exporters  of 
fish,  oil  and  furs  and  importers  of  wines  and  the 
manufactured  goods  of  Europe.  His  warehouse 
and  those  of  his  neighbors,  along  the  waterside, 
gave  in  later  years  to  the  street  the  name  of 
Merchants  Row.  He  returned  to  England  in 
1639  and  was  married  to  Frances  Sears,  of 
Leighton  Buzzard  in  Bedfordshire.  This  place 
is  near  Dunstable  in  that  county  and  the  country 
place  of  Tyn^-,  in  New  England,  was  given  the 


Page  nine 


I 

/y/'m  an  l^niqurFrint  in-  ffi^y  Cfi/Zerfran  ^/-^ 


The  Site   of  the   Fidelity   Trust   Company's   Building   was 
off   the   end   of  Mr.   Venner's   Wharf   in    16r,0 


Edward  Tyng,  Upholster 


name  of  Dunstable,  in  which  town  he  died  in 
1681. 

Thirty  years  previous,  in  1652,  he  had  sold, 
"my  wharfe  in  Boston  against  the  end  of  the 
Great  Street  and  interest  in  the  flats  before  it 
down  to  low  water-mark,"  to  James  Everell, 
shoemaker.  The  property  was  bounded  south 
by  the  town's  way  down  upon  the  flats  and  north 
by  the  wharf  and  line  of  Mr.  A'enner,  east  by  the 
channel  or  low  water-mark. 

James  Everell,  though  styled  shoemaker,  was 
not  of  the  more  humble  standing  of  the  present 
day  shoemaker  but  rather  that  of  the  manufac- 
turer of  footwear  on  a  large  scale.  He  was  often 
a  selectman  of  the  town  and  his  land  possessions 
were  large  and  his  house  was  near  the  town  dock, 
a  most  important  business  section  of  the  town. 

Everell  later  disposed  of  the  property  to  John 
Evered,  alias  Webb,  who  came  to  Boston  from 
Marlborough,  in  Wiltshire,  England.  His  house 
in  Boston  was  on  the  site  of  the  Old  Corner  Book 
Store.  In  1650,  he  was  at  Chelmsford  trafficking 
with  the  Indians,  and  his  property  there  he 
named  "Draycott  upon  Merrimack,"  after  the 
village  of  Draycot  Foliat,  six  miles  north  of 
Marlborough,  England.  In  1668,  while  on  a 
Ashing  frolic  in  Boston,  he  was  drowned  off  the 
Castle  on  Castle  Island.  While  catching  a 
whale  the  line  became  coiled  about  his  waist, 
and  the  whale,  suddenly  come  to  life,  drew  him 
overboard. 

In    1664   Evered   sold   his   wharf   to   William 


Page  eleven 


I 


Whale  Fishing  in  Boston  Harbor 


Alford,  a  merchant,  the  property  having  a  depth, 
from  the  front  on  the  street  to  the  rear,  of  146 
feet. 

Ah'ord  came  to  Salem  in  1634  from  London, 
where  he  was  a  member  of  the  Skinners'  Com- 
pany, its  members  dealing  in  skins  and  furs.  He 
had  favored  the  party  in  Boston  headed  by  Ann 
Hutchinson  and  dwelt  for  a  while  at  New  Haven. 
He  came  to  Boston,  purchased  the  wharf  and 
died  here  in  1677.  One  of  his  daughters,  Mary, 
married  a  Peter  Butler,  said  to  have  been  of  the 
Marquis  of  Ormond's  family  in  Ireland.  On  his 
death  she  married  Hezekiah  Usher,  a  bookseller, 
who  dwelt  opposite  the  town  house  on  the  north 
side  of  the  street.  Usher  died,  and  she  married 
a  third  husband,  Samuel  Nowell,  who  was  of 
great  prominence  in  the  colony.  A  preacher, 
though  not  a  settled  minister,  Nowell  was  chap- 
lain of  the  ^lassachusetts  regiment  in  King 
Philip's  War,  acting  with  great  personal  bravery. 
A  member  of  both  branches  of  the  General 
Court,  he  became  Treasurer  of  the  Colony  just 
before  the  Andros  troubles  in  1685.  He  then 
went  to  England  with  Increase  Mather  as  agent 
of  the  colony,  and  died  in  London  in  1688. 

His  widow  died  in  1693,  leaving  the  property, 
which  had  become  known  as  Nowell's  Wharf,  to 
her  children  b}-  her  first  husband,  Peter  Butler. 

On  September  10,  1673,  the  selectmen  of  the 
town  drew  up  a  plan  for  the  erecting  of  a  wall 
or  wharf  upon  the  flats  before  the  town  to  extend 
from  the  Sconce  or  battery  at  the  base  of  Fort 


Page  thirteen 


Boston's  First  Land  Improvement 


Hill  to  Scarlett's  Wharf,  at  the  foot  of  Fleet 
Street,  at  the  North  End.  This  was  to  secure 
the  town  from  the  fireships  of  an  enemy.  This 
wall  was  to  be  2,200  feet  in  length  and  to  be  a 
breastwork  14  or  15  feet  high  with  guns  mounted 
on  the  same.  Some  fifty  shore  owners  agreed  to 
perform  their  part  in  the  plan  and  were  given 
rights  to  erect  wharves  and  warehouses  in  the 
enclosed  space.  William  Alford's  proportion  in 
the  project  was  one  hundred  feet,  and  the  next 
quarter  century  was  to  witness  the  first  great 
improvement  in  the  growth  of  the  town's  area, 
and  was  done  by  the  proprietors  incorporated 
by  an  act  of  the  General  Court  in  1681. 

By  this  plan  the  wharf  owners  were  entitled  to 
build  up  to  a  line  called  ''the  circular  line,"  the 
space  between  this  line  and  the  sea  wall  forming 
an  inner  harbor.  In  1707,  Mr.  Henry  Bering, 
a  merchant  of  the  town,  proposed  to  the  select- 
men —  "That  it  would  be  a  benefit  to  this  Town 
and  tend  to  the  encourragement  of  the  Trade 
thereof  to  have  a  wharffe  built  from  the  Lower 
end  of  the  Town  House  Street  to  run  from  thence 
to  the  Out-Wharves,  or  Low  Water  mark.  And 
that  the  Town  do  grant  their  right  in  ye  flatts 
unto  such  persons  who  shall  undertake  to  be  at 
the  charge  thereof."  The  result  was  that  after 
agitation  and  action  on  the  rights  of  the  shore 
owners  in  building  wharves  within  the  sea  wall, 
which  had  gradually  gone  to  decay,  the  Boston 
Pier  or  Long  Wharf  was  erected. 

Historians  and  others,  describing  the  project, 


Page  fifteen 


■?^~':-2JC 


1 


Boston  Pier  or  Long  Wharf 


state  that  the  wharf  was  to  run  from  the  end  of 
King  Street  to  the  Circular  Line  and  to  low 
water  mark.  The  agreement  of  the  proprietors, 
as  given  in  the  town  records,  was,  "at  our  own 
cost  and  charge  erect  and  build  a  wharf,  with  a 
sufficient  Common  Shore  (at  the  Approbation 
of  the  Selectmen)  at  the  end  of  King  Street  to 
the  Circular  Line  as  delineated  by  the  Plan, 
and  that  from  thence  we  will  Erect,  build  and  main- 
tain e  a  icharfe"  etc.     (13  Mch.  1709/10.) 

This  shows  that  the  shore  or  flats  were 
improved  by  preparing  the  bottom  of  King 
Street  to  connect,  as  a  highway,  with  the  new 
wharf,  which  was  to  begin  at  the  Circular  Line. 

This  agreement  was  entered  into  by  Captain 
Oliver  Noyes  and  five  others,  the  original  pro- 
prietors. Later  others  joined  the  project,  among 
them  was  Jonathan  Belcher,  to  whom  was 
granted  numbers  one  and  two  at  the  King 
Street  end  of  the  wharf.  Belcher  was  the  son 
of  Andrew  Belcher,  an  opulent  merchant  of 
Boston.  After  graduating  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen from  Harvard,  in  1699,  the  son  travelled 
abroad  many  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Council  for  five  years  and  agent  in  England  for 
the  Province.  He  became  governor  in  1730, 
and  held  the  office  for  eleven  years.  In  1747.  he 
was  made  governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  held  the 
office  till  his  death  in  1757.  On  his  allotment  on 
Long  Wharf  he  l)uilt,  after  the  fire  of  1711,  the 
wooden  building  to  be  known  for  over  half  a 
centurv  as  the  Crown  Coffee  House. 


Page  seventeen 


Governor   Belcher   who   built   the    Crown    Coffee    Houae 


The  Grown  Coffee  House  Built 


The  Crown  seems  to  be  one  of  the  oldest  of 
English  signs.  We  read  of  it  as  early  as  1467, 
when  a  certain  Walter  Walters,  who  kept  the 
Crown  Inn  in  Cheapside,  made  an  innocent 
pun,  saying  he  would  make  his  son  heir  to  the 
Crown,  which  so  displeased  his  gracious  majesty. 
King  Edward  IV.,  that  he  ordered  the  man  to  be 
put  to  death  for  high  treason. 

The  Crown  Inn  at  Oxford  was  kept  by  Dav- 
enant  (Sir  William  Davenant's  father).  Shake- 
speare, in  his  frequent  journeys  between  London 
and  his  native  place,  generally  put  up  at  this 
inn,  and  the  malicious  world  said  that  young 
Davenant  (the  future  Sir  William)  was  some- 
what nearer  related  to  him  than  as  a  godson  only. 
One  day,  when  Shakespeare  had  just  arrived, 
and  the  boy  was  sent  for  from  school  to  see  him, 
a  master  of  one  of  the  colleges,  pretty  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  affairs  of  the  family,  asked 
the  boy  why  he  was  going  home  in  so  much 
haste,  who  answered  that  he  was  going  to  see 
his  godfather  Shakespeare.  "Fie,  child,"  said 
the  old  gentleman,  "why  are  you  so  superfluous? 
Have  you  not  learnt  yet  that  you  should  not 
use  the  name  of  God  in  vain?" 

The  coffee  house  must  not  be  dismissed  with 
a  cursory  mention.  It  might  indeed  at  that  time 
have  been  not  improperly  called  a  most  import- 
ant political  institution.  No  Parliament  had  sat 
for  years.  The  municipal  council  of  the  city  had 
ceased  to  speak  the  sense  of  the  citizens.  Public 
meetings,  harangues,  resolutions,  and  the  rest  of 


Page  nineteen 


The  Crown  Inn  in  England 


the  modern  machinery  of  agitation  had  not  yet 
come  into  fashion.  Nothing  resembHng  the 
modern  newspaper  existed.  In  such  circum- 
stances the  coffee-houses  were  the  chief  organs 
through  w^hich  the  public  opinion  of  the  metro- 
poHs  vented  itself. 

The  first  of  these  establishments  had  been  set 
up  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  by  a 
Turkey  merchant,  who  had  acquired  among  the 
Mohammedans  a  taste  for  their  favorite  bever- 
age. The  convenience  of  being  able  to  make 
appointments  in  any  part  of  the  town,  and  of 
being  able  to  pass  evenings  socially  at  a  very 
small  charge,  was  so  great  that  the  fashion 
spread  fast.  Every  man  of  the  upper  or  middle 
class  went  daily  to  his  coffee-house  to  learn  the 
news  and  to  discuss  it.  Every  coff'ee-house  had 
one  or  more  orators  to  whose  eloquence  the  crowd 
listened  wath  admiration,  and  who  soon  became 
what  the  journalists  of  our  time  have  been  called, 
a  Fourth  Estate  of  the  realm.  The  court  had 
long  seen  with  uneasiness  the  growth  of  this  new 
power  in  the  state.  An  attempt  had  been  made, 
during  Danby's  administration,  to  close  the 
coff'ee-houses.  But  men  of  all  parties  missed 
their  usual  places  of  resort  so  much  that  there 
was  a  universal  outcry.  The  government  did 
not  venture,  in  opposition  to  a  feeling  so  strong 
and  general,  to  enforce  a  regulation  of  w^hich  the 
legality  might  well  be  questioned.  Since  that 
time  ten  years  had  elapsed,  and  during  those 
years  the   number  and   influence   of  the  coffee- 


Page  twenty 


I 


The  Grown  Inn  in  England 


houses  had  been  constantly  increasing.  For- 
eigners remarked  that  the  coffee-house  was  that 
which  especially  distinguished  London  from  all 
other  cities;  that  the  coft'ee-house  was  the  Lon- 
doner's home,  and  that  those  who  wished  to  find 
a  gentleman  commonly  asked,  not  whether  he 
lived  in  Fleet  Street  or  Chancery  Lane,  but 
whether  he  frequented  the  Grecian  or  the 
Rainbow.  Nobody  was  excluded  from  these 
places  who  laid  down  his  penny  at  the  bar.  Yet 
every  rank  and  i)rofession  and  every  shade  of 
religious  and  political  opinion  had  its  own  head- 
quarters. There  were  houses  near  Saint  James's 
Park  where  fops  congregated,  their  heads  and 
shoulders  covered  with  black  or  flaxen  wigs,  not 
less  ample  than  those  which  are  now^  worn  by 
the  Chancellor  and  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  wig  came  from  Paris;  and 
so  did  the  rest  of  the  fine  gentleman's  ornaments, 
his  embroidered  coat,  his  fringed  gloves,  and  the 
tassel  which  upheld  his  pantaloons.  The  con- 
versation was  in  that  dialect  which,  long  after  it 
had  ceased  to  be  spoken  in  fashionable  circles, 
continued,  in  the  mouth  of  Lord  Foppington,  to 
excite  the  mirth  of  theatres.  The  atmosi)here 
was  like  that  of  a  perfumer's  shop.  Tobacco  in 
any  other  form  than  that  of  richly  scented  snuff 
was  held  in  abomination.  If  any  clown,  ignor- 
ant of  the  usages  of  the  house,  called  for  a  pipe, 
the  sneers  of  the  whole  assembly  and  the  short 
answers  of  the  waiters  soon  convinced  him  that 
he  had  better  go  somewhere  else.     Xor.  indeed, 


Page  tircnty-one 


The  Grown  Inn  in  England 


would  he  have  had  far  to  go.  For,  in  general, 
the  coffee-rooms  reeked  with  tobacco  like  a 
guard-room;  and  strangers  sometimes  expressed 
their  surprise  that  so  many  people  should  leave 
their  own  fireside  to  sit  in  the  midst  of  eternal 
fog  and  stench.  Nowhere  was  the  smoking 
more  constant  than  at  Will's.  That  celebrated 
house,  situated  between  Coyent  Garden  and  Bow 
Street,  was  sacred  to  polite  letters.  There  the 
talk  was  about  poetical  justice  and  the  unities  of 
place  and  time.  There  was  a  faction  for  Perrault 
and  the  moderns,  a  faction  for  Boileau  and  the 
ancients.  One  group  debated  whether  Paradise 
Lost  ought  not  to  have  been  in  rhyme.  To 
another  an  envious  poetaster  demonstrated  that 
Venice  Preserved  ought  to  have  been  hooted 
from  the  stage.  Under  no  roof  was  a  greater 
variety  of  figures  to  be  seen.  There  were  earls 
in  stars  and  garters,  clergymen  in  cassocks  and 
bands;  pert  Templars,  sheepish  lads  from  the 
universities,  translators  and  index-makers  in 
ragged  coats  of  frieze. 

The  great  press  was  to  get  near  the  chair 
where  John  Dryden  sat.  In  winter  that  chair 
was  always  in  the  warmest  nook  by  the  fire;  in 
summer  it  stood  in  the  balcony.  To  bow  to  the 
Laureate,  and  to  hear  his  opinion  of  Racine's 
last  tragedy  or  of  Bossu's  treatise  on  epic  poetry, 
was  esteemed  a  privilege.  A  pinch  from  his 
snuffbox  was  an  honor  sufficient  to  turn  the  head 
of  a  young  enthusiast.  There  were  coffee-houses 
where  the  first  medical  men  might  be  consulted. 


Page  twenty-three 


The  Grown  Inn  in  England 


Doctor  John  Radcliffe,  who,  in  the  year  1685, 
rose  to  the  largest  practice  in  London,  came 
daily,  at  the  hour  when  the  Exchange  was  full, 
from  his  house  in  Bow  Street,  then  a  fashionable 
part  of  the  capital,  to  Garraway's,  and  was  to  be 
found,  surrounded  by  surgeons  and  apothecaries, 
at  a  particular  table.  There  were  Puritan  coffee- 
houses where  no  oath  was  heard,  and  where 
lank-haired  men  discussed  election  and  reproba- 
tion through  their  noses;  Jew  coft'ee-houses, 
where  dark-eyed  money-changers  from  Venice 
and  from  Amsterdam  greeted  each  other;  and 
Popish  coft'ee-houses  where,  as  good  Protestants 
believed,  Jesuits  planned,  over  their  cups,  another 
great  fire,  and  cast  silver  bullets  to  shoot  the 
King. 

On  the  site  occupied  by  the  present  Bank  of 
England  there  used  to  stand  four  taverns;  one 
of  them  bore  the  sign  of  the  Crown,  and  was 
certainly  in  a  good  line  of  business,  for,  accord- 
ing to  Sir  John  Hawkins,  it  was  not  unusual  in 
those  toping  days  to  draw  a  butt  (120  gallons)  in 
half-pints  in  the  course  of  a  single  morning. 

About  the  same  period  there  was  another 
Crown  Tavern  in  Duck  Lane,  West  Smithfield. 
One  of  the  rooms  in  that  house  was  decorated  by 
Isaac  Fuller  (ob.  1672),  with  pictures  of  the 
Muses,  Pallas,  Mars,  Ajax,  Ulysses,  etc.  Ned 
Ward  praises  them  highly  in  his  "London  Spy." 
"The  dead  figures  appeared  with  such  lively 
majesty  that  they  begot  reverence  in  the  spec- 
tators    towards     the     awful     shadows."      Such 


Page  twenty-four 


Thomas  Selby,  Periwigmaker 


painted  rooms  in  taverns  were  not  unconimon 
at  that  period. 

The  first  landlord  of  the  Crown  was  Thomas 
Selb}',  who  was  admitted  an  inhabitant  of  the 
town  February  20,  1709-10,  Jonathan  Belcher 
bein<^-  his  security.  By  occupation  Selby  was  a 
periwigmaker,  1)ut  with  it  combined  his  duties 
as  host  of  the  Crown,  where  he  was  licensed  to 
sell  strong  drink  as  an  inn  holder.  The  Cofifee 
House  was  not  alone  a  place  of  refreshment,  but 
was  also  the  place  for  vendue  or  auction  sales 
of  all  sorts. 

"Lately  taken  from  the  Crown  Coffee  House 
in  Boston  a  good  Beaver  Hatt,  never  dress'd, 
with  a  hole  burnt  in  the  brim  about  the  bigness 
of  a  pea.  AX'hoever  brings  the  same  to  Mr. 
Selby  at  the  said  Coffee  House  shall  receive 
10s.  reward." 

"To  be  sold  by  Thomas  Selby  at  the  Crown 
Coft'ee  House,  All  sorts  of  good  wines  from  the 
pipe  to  the  pint  on  reasonable  terms." 

"At  5  o'clock  at  publick  vendue  at  the  Crown 
Coff'ee  House,  Long  Wharf,  a  Collection  of 
Choice  and  Curious  Books  of  Divinity,  History, 
Poetry,  \''oyages  and  Travels.  N.  B.  To  be 
sold  at  the  same  time  and  place  a  Collection  of 
Curious  Pamphlets,  Plays  and  Maps."  This 
was  not,  however,  his  only  connection  with 
literary  products.  In  the  New  England  Courant 
(Franklin's  paper)  from  17  July  to  28  August, 
1725,  there  was  advertised  "A  new  and  correct 
prospect  of  the  town  .  .  .  curiously  engraved." 


Page  tuenty-five 


Selby's  View  of  Boston 


The  title  of  the  view  was  "A  South  East  View  of 
ye  Great  Town  of  Boston  in  New  England  in 
America,"  and  was  dedicated  to  Governor 
Samuel  Shute  by  Thos.  Selby  and  William  Price. 
In  the  view  are  fifty  references  to  places  of  note 
or  interest  in  the  town.  A  list  of  them  is  given 
in  the  key  below  the  view.  Number  25  is  noted 
as  "Thomas  Selby's  Coffee  House,"  and  depicts 
a  three-story  building  of  the  period  at  the  head 
of  Long  Wharf. 

Selby  married  Mehitable,  daughter  of  James 
Bill  of  Boston  and  Pulling  Point  (W^inthrop). 
In  1720,  Selby  and  his  wife  mortgaged  his  hold- 
ings he  had  bought  adjoining  Mr.  Jonathan 
Belcher's  house  and  land  called  the  Crown 
Cofifee  House  to  his  mother-in-law  and  brother- 
in-law,  Mehitable  Bill  and  North  Ingram. 
Selby  died  at  the  Crown  Cofifee  House,  19  Sep- 
tember, 1727,  aged  54.  As  he  was  an  active 
member  of  Kings  Chapel  and  vestryman  from 
1722  to  1727,  he  was  buried  in  a  tomb  in  or  near 
the  chapel.  At  the  time  of  his  decease  there  was 
living  with  him  William  Burgis,  the  engraver 
of  the  view  previously  described,  and  also  of 
"A  South  Prospect  of  ye  Flourishing  City  of 
New  York,"  done  in  1717.  Besides  a  prosperous 
trade  and  an  interest  of  £659  from  the  estate  of 
Selby,  the  widow  had  property  in  her  own  right. 
Burgis  won  this  prize  and  married  the  widow, 
after  a  widowhood  of  one  year,  and  petitioned 
to  be  a  taverner  at  the  Crown  Cofifee  House, 
which  was  allowed  in  July,  1729. 


Page  tuenty-seven 


-  - "  * 


Edward  Lutwych,  Taverner 


In  the  following  July,  1730,  he  was  disallowed 
and  in  his  place  Edward  Lutw^ych  was  allowed 
to  the  "Crown  Colly  House."  In  the  following 
winter,  after  a  series  of  lawsuits  against  him, 
Burgis  is  noted  as  being  out  of  the  Province. 
In  1736,  his  wife,  Mehitable,  petitions  that  her 
husband,  having  got  what  he  could  of  her  estate 
into  his  hands,  about  live  years  since,  left  her 
and  has  never  returned  into  the  Province  again, 
and  she  prayed  a  divorce.  After  being  deserted 
the  widow  had  other  hard  luck,  w^as  arrested  for 
selling  liquor  without  a  license  and  keeping  a 
noisy  and  disorderly  house.  This  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  blot  on  the  reputation  of  the  "Crown," 
as  the  widow  had  left  its  management  and  the 
landlord  was  then  Edward  Lutwych.  Lutwych 
was  of  a  prominent  family  of  that  name  in 
Shropshire,  England.  A  brother,  Lawrence 
Lutwych,  of  Boston,  had  been  a  distiller  of 
Radnor,  South  AA''ales,  and  had  married  Sarah, 
daughter  of  Deacon  James  Lindall  of  Salem. 
Edward  married  for  a  hrst  wife  in  1727  Thankful, 
widow  of  Joseph  Parmenter.  On  her  death  he 
married  Elizabeth,  widow  of  David  Craigie, 
formerly  Elizabeth  Taylor,  one  of  the  heirs  of 
James  Taylor,  Treasurer  of  the  Province,  1693- 
1714.  This  shows  his  social  standing,  and  as  a 
subscriber  to  the  New  England  Chronology  of 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Prince  he  evidently  had  literary 
tastes.  He  was  one  of  several  1  Boston  people 
who,  in  1735,  petitioned  for  land  at  what  was 
later  Gray,  Maine.     In  1740  he  was  a  subscriber 


Page  twenty-nine 


Widow  Ann  Clements 


to  the   Massachusetts    Land    Bank      In    1731 
Liitwych  had  leased  land  at  Hopkinton,  Mass.,' 
and  about  1735  he  left  the  Crown  Coffee  House 
and  resided  at  Hopkinton  till  his  death  in  1745 
His  successor  at  the  Crown,  in  1735,  was  the 
widow,  Ann  Clements,  who  had  previously  re- 
tailed strong  drinks  around  the  corner  opposite 
the  ''Golden  Ball"  in  Merchants  Row.     She  was 
a  daughter  of  Matthew  and  Susanna  (Walker) 
Jones,  and  married,  in  1714,  Jeremiah  Clements 
felmonger  or  hatter.     They  had  several  children,' 
and  in  1/26  she  petitioned  for  a  divorce,  having 
been  deserted,  two  years  previous,  by  her  hus- 
band, who  was  then  at  Marblehead,  he  bein^ 
interested  in  other  women  and  having  assaulted 
her.     At  that  time  she  was  employed  bv  Luke 
Vardy,   the  landlord   of  the  Exchange  tavern 
Her  experience  there  fitted  her  to  run  the  Crown 
her  husband  having  died  in   1732.     Soon  after 
taking  the  Crown  she  married  William  Swords 
mariner,  and  kept  the  tavern  while  he  followed 
the  sea  for  a  living. 

In  1741,  Swords  leased  a  shop  near  the  Town 
Dock,  and  his  wife  evidently  gave  up  the  Crown 
for  a  year  in  1742  and  later  returned.  In  1750 
she  stated  she  had  kept  a  tavern  for  twenty 
years  and  had  kept  the  Crown  Coft'ee  House  for 
the  past  ten  years. 

In  1742  Samuel  Wethered  kept  the  "Crown" 

for  about  a  year;  from  there  he  removed  to  the 

Rose  and   Crown"  Tavern   on   the   south-west 

corner    of    King    (State)    and     Pudding    Lane 


Page  thirty 


Samuel  Wethered,  Innkeeper 


(Devonshire  Street).  In  1743  he  kept  the  Bunch 
of  Grapes  on  the  corner  of  King-  Street  and 
Mackerel  Lane  (Kilby  Street),  when  "the  antient 
loyal  and  hospitable  Society  of  Callicoes"  met 
there  that  year.  He  took  part  in  the  1745  expe- 
dition to  Louisburg,  and  after  its  capture  kept 
a  tavern  there. 

He  served  in  the  expedition  of  1758  which 
went  to  Fort  Craven  and  the  Oneida  Carrying 
Place,  being  the  lieutenant  of  the  Boston  Com- 
pany, under  Captain  Richard  Atkins.  In  1759 
his  widow,  Sarah  (Thornton)  Wethered,  peti- 
tioned the  General  Court  to  sell  the  liquors  left 
in  the  house  at  his  decease. 

In  1749,  Andrew,  son  of  Governor  Belcher,  as 
his  attorney,  sold  the  Crown  Coffee  House  to 
Richard  Smith,  innkeeper.  Smith,  in  1738,  had 
kept  the  Greyhound  Tavern,  which  stood  on 
Washington  Street,  opposite  Vernon  Street, 
Roxbury.  When  purchased  by  Richard  Smith, 
it  was  then  still  in  the  occupation  of  the  widow 
Swords.  The  house,  a  double  one,  was  40  by  30, 
the  frontage  on  the  south  was  40  feet  on  Long 
Wharf,  making  a  corner  with  King  Street  on  the 
west,  the  depth  of  the  building  being  30  feet. 

In  1747,  Robert  Shillcock  was  cook  on  His 
Majesty's  ship  Launceston  and  his  wife,  Hannah, 
was  living  at  Plymouth,  Devon,  England.  The 
Launceston  was  a  fifth-rate  ship,  of  the  British 
Navy,  of  700  tons  and  a  complement  of  about 
250  men. 

We  find  Shillcock  in  Boston  in  1750,  as  in  that 


Page  thirty-one 


=-  ^ 


Robert  Shillcock,  His  Majesty's  Cook 


year  he  succeeded  Mrs.  Swords,  and  the  next 
year  purchased  the  Crown  Tavern  estate  from 
Richard  Smith,  and  the  property  was  held  by 
his  family  until  its  demolition  during  the  Revo- 
lution. During  that  period  it  had  several 
landlords  and  landladies.  In  1726  Rebecca 
Coffin  kept  it.  She  was  probably  the  widow  of 
Gayer  Coffin  of  Nantucket,  who  came  to  Boston 
and  in  1733  married  Rebecca  Parker. 

In  1766  it  was  kept  by  William  Wheat.  He 
was  a  son  of  Dr.  Samuel  Wheat  of  Newton,  and 
grandson  of  Moses  Wheat  of  Concord.  He  was 
born  in  1741,  and  started  life  as  a  trader  in 
Boston.  His  mother,  Hannah  (Hovey)  Wheat, 
was  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Hovey,  who  kept 
the  Blue  Anchor  Tavern,  Cambridge,  near  the 
Market  Place  (the  northeast  corner  of  Dunster 
and  Mount  Auburn  Streets)  from  1705  to  1709. 
Though  he  might  have  inherited  a  taste  to  serve 
the  public  as  a  landlord,  Wheat  did  not  attain  a 
financial  success,  and  after  a  year  removed  to  a 
house  of  \\^illiam  Edes  on  Fish  (North)  Street. 
In  1767  Richard  Bradford  took  the  Crown.  He 
married,  in  1763,  Rachael,  daughter  of  Caleb  and 
Rebecca  (Lobdell)  Loring.  The  tavern  on 
Minot's  T.  \\'harf  was  kept  by  Nicholas  Lobdell 
in  1754.  Mary  Maverick  applied  to  the  keeper 
of  the  Crown  in  1772,  but  was  refused.  She  was 
the  mother  of  Samuel  Maverick,  one  of  the  Bos- 
ton Massacre  victims.  In  1774,  Thomas  Waldo 
was  licensed  to  retail  at  his  shop  on  Long  Wharf, 
Robert  Shillcock,  owner  of  the  Crown,  had  two 


Page  thirty-three 


Si'ou  of 
WILLIAM  WILLIAMS 


.oweft  Prices,  by  Wholefale  Oi aii,  for  Ca. 


Mathematical   Inftruments. 

William  Williams 

Mathematical   Inftrument   Maker, 

Has  to  fell  at  his  Shop  in  King-Street,  two  Doors  Eaft  of  the 
Sign  of  Admiral  Vernon,  near  the  Head  of  the  Long- 
Wharf,  BOSTON. 
A  L^rgc  Airortment  of  Hadley's  and  Davis's  Quadrants, 
■^^  hanging  and  ftanding  Compafles,  in  Brafs  and  Wood  I 
Gauging  and  Surveying  Inftruments,  Cafes  of  Inftruments, 
large  and  fmall  Perfpedive  Gla/Tes,  in  Ivory,  Wood  and  Filli- 
/kin,  plotting  Scales  and  Protraftors,  Gunter  Scales  and  Di- 
viders, Surveyors  Chains,  Artificial  Magnets  with  Cafes,  Sand 
Glaffes  from  i  Hours  to  j  Minute,  Inftruments  of  a  new 
Conltrudion  to  meafure  Boards,  Ouarter  Waggoners,  Atkin- 
fon's  Epitome,  Wilfon's  ditto,  Pattron's  Navigation,  Seamans 
Afliftants,  Callendcrs,  Mariners  Compafifes  redified,  Young 
Man's  Companion,  Journal  Books,  Ink-Powder,  Quills  &  Pa- 
per, an  AfTortment  of  Brafs  Pocket  Compares  with  &:  with- 
out Cards,  Bnx  Rulos,  Slates  and  Pencik,  Penknives,  Jac'ic 
knives,  &c. 

All  Sorts  of  Mathematical  Inftruments  arc  made  an.i  re- 
paired by  the  above  William  Williams.  Those  who  will 
favour  him  with  their  Cuftom,  may  depend  upon  being  well 
ufed,  and  have  their  Work  done  with  Fidelity  and  Difpatch. 


N-AWAY/rom  hh  Maficr   John  Langdon,  the    20 
'•'llant    ~  Indented   S 

{Bostof/  Gazeffi\  Marc//  /_',  /yjo) 


William  Wheat,  Trader 


daughters  born  in  Boston;  r^Iarv  in  1752  and 
Joyce  in  1754.  Joyce  married,  in  1773.  William 
Williams,  a  mathematical  instruments  maker. 
After  the  evacuation  in  1776  the  selectmen 
licensed  various  persons  to  retail  liquors.  "Wil- 
liams and  Mncent  to  retail  at  his  shop  in  King 
Street."  This  refers  most  probably  to  William 
Williams  and  George  \'incent.  The  latter  after- 
wards was  licensed  to  sell  at  Scarlett's  Wharf, 
where  he  died  in  1782. 

In  1782  the  widow,  Hannah  Shillcock,  died, 
having  survived  her  husband  eighteen  years. 
An  account  of  her  husl)and's  estate,  of  which  she 
was  administratrix,  shows  that  the  Crown  Cofifee 
House  had  disappeared  before  17  March.  1783. 
and  the  land  was  then  valued  at  £120.  Its 
disappearance  is  accounted  for  by  a  tire  which 
occurred  on  20  September,  1780.  At  two  in  the 
afternoon  a  fire  broke  out  on  Long  Wharf, 
destroying  the  warehouse  of  Pitts  and  Call. 
Eliot's  tobacco  store  and  several  other  buildings, 
including  the  Crown  Coffee  House.  In  October, 
1787,  there  had  been  erected  two  new  stores  on 
the  site  of  the  Crown  at  a  cost  of  £495.  These 
were  erected  by  William  Williams  and  I  benjamin 
Brown  of  Wells,  Maine,  who  had  half  an  interest 
in  the  property. 

Benjamin  Brown  married,  2S  March.  1796. 
Mary  Frances  Selby.  He  is  said  to  have  married 
Eunice  Orne  of  Lynntield  in  Xovem1)er.  1795. 
l3ut  the  fact  is  that  his  intention  to  niarr\-  her 
was  published  on  that   date,  and  after  his  niar- 


/'.75'c  thirty-Hvf 


North    End    of    Pemberton    Square    In    1875 
Site   of   Court   House    on    the    left 


View    of   upper    part   of    State    Street    iji    1804 


William  Williams,  Mathematical  Instruments 


riage  to  Miss  Selby,  Miss  Orne  married,  23 
December,  1796,  Rev.  Aaron  Green  of  Maiden. 

The  east  half  of  the  Crown  Coffee  House 
estate.  Number  2  Long  Wharf,  owned  by  Ben- 
jamin Brown  in  1798,  was  occupied  by  Joseph 
Baxter,  junior.  It  was  valued  at  the  same 
figures  and  was  of  the  same  size  as  the  west  half. 
Baxter  was  in  the  boot  and  shoe  business,  the 
same  occupation  as  the  owner  of  the  site  150 
years  previous,  James  Everell,  the  shoemaker, 
Baxter  had  previously  been  in  partnership  with 
Christopher  Marshall  at  5  Marlboro  Street,  pres- 
ent location  Washington,  between  School  and 
Winter  Streets.  Marshall  was  a  captain  in  his 
brother.  Col.  Thomas  Marshall's  Regiment  in 
the  Revolution.  Baxter  was  also  a  military  man, 
but  without  the  experiences  of  his  partner.  His 
services  consisted  of  membership  in  the  Ancient 
and  Honorable  Artillery  Company.  He  was 
about  forty  years  younger  than  his  partner, 
Marshall,  and  died  in  Fayette,  Maine,  in  1828. 

Besides  the  store  2  Long  W^harf,  Brown  owned 
several  other  stores  on  the  Wharf  and  an  interest 
in  the  Island  Wharf  on  the  south  side  of  Long 
Wharf.  He  went  to  Philadelphia  from  Wells, 
and  died  there  suddenly  in  January,  1802.  His 
widow,  Mary  Frances  I'rown,  married  Lewis 
Lecesne  of  New  York.  In  later  years  she  was  a 
resident  of  Rio  Janeiro.  A  daughter.  Hannah 
Fisher  Brown,  married  about  1810  to  Francis 
Desire  Mason  of  Belleville,  N.  J,,  received  the 
Long  Wharf  property  from  her  father  just  pre- 
vious to  his  death. 


Page  thirty-seven 


View   looking  down   State   Street   in    1880 


Interior    of    Store    Room    of    Stearns    &    Crosby,    Cliatliam    Street,    corner    of 
Chatham    Row.      (Has    not    been    changed    since    1832) 


Benjamin  Brown,  of  Wells,  Me. 


It  was  on  the  death  of  Benjamin  Brown  in 
1802  that  the  wooden  stores  were  replaced  by 
brick  structures. 

Williams  occupied  the  store,  Number  One 
Long'  Wharf,  for  his  trade  as  a  mathematical 
instrument  maker,  and  resided  on  Quaker  Lane 
(Congress  Street.)  He  died  15  January,  1792, 
at  the  age  of  forty-four  years. 

To  be  Sold. 

By  order  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  at 
Publick  Vendue.  On  Friday  the  19th  inst. 
(instead  of  the  5th  as  has  been  advertized). 
Store  No.  1  on  Long  Wharf  being-  the  Estate  of 
the  late  William  Williams,  deceased.  (Colum- 
bian Centinel,  9  March,  1793.) 

The  purchaser  was  John  Osborn.  The  prop- 
erty, valued  at  £  1060,  lawful  money,  was  of 
wood,  and  had  a  frontage  of  20  feet  on  Long 
Wharf,  and  ran  back  30  feet  to  Spear's  Wharf. 
In  1798  the  store  was  taxed  to  John  Osborn  for 
$2800.00. 

John   Osborn. 

Imported  in  the  Ships  Minerva  and  Mary 
from  London.  Paints,  Painters'  Brushes,  knives 
copal  varnish,  glaziers  diamonds,  etc.  Sheet 
Clock  and  Window  (^lass  all  sizes  at  his  store 
Number  One  Long  \\'harf  and  his  store  at  the 
South  End.  (Columbian  Centinel,  19  Novem- 
ber, 1794.) 


Page  thirty-nine 


Crown    Coffee    House    and    Fidelity    Trust    Co.    Site    in    18T2 


State    Street    In    1835 


John  Osborn,  Painter 


Osborn  was  a  painter  and  dealer  in  paints  and 
oils.  His  family  was  engaged  in  that  business 
in  Boston  for  nearly  a  century.  His  father's 
shop  and  house  in  1789  was  on  Orange  Street 
(Washington  Street  south  of  Essex)  on  the 
south  corner  of  Nassau,  now  Common  Street. 
His  uncle  Thomas,  a  painter,  was  at  the  North 
End,  on  Prince  Street.  The  elder  John  died  in 
1792,  and  the  son  succeeded  to  the  business,  re- 
siding on  Atkinson  Street  (Congress  Street), 
then  a  new  residential  section  of  Fort  Hill.  A 
few  years  later  he  purchased  and  resided  at  num- 
ber 18  Franklin  Place  (Franklin  Street),  oppo- 
site the  Tontine  Crescent,  the  large  brick  block 
which  had  caused  the  street  to  be  a  select  neigh- 
borhood. A  century  ago  he  invested  in  lands  at 
West  Boston  on  Olive  (Mt.  \^ernon)  Street  and 
on  Cambridge  Street,  where  he  resided  just 
before  his  death  in  1819.  Though  only  forty- 
eight  years  old,  he  left  property  valued  at  over 
$100,000,  a  goodly  estate  a  hundred  years  ago. 
John  Osborn,  junior,  married,  in  1792,  Catherine 
Macaulay  Barbour,  who  after  his  death  resided 
at  26  Fayette  Place  (Tremont  Street,  between 
West  and  Boylston  Streets). 

The  Osborn  property  on  Cambridge  Street 
was  situated  l^etween  Chambers  and  Lynde 
Streets,  and  some  of  the  houses  built  on  it  by  the 
Osborns  survi\ed.  in  the  20th  century.  The 
property  was  left  to  three  children,  (ieorge 
Barbour  Osl)()rn,  Catherine,  who  married  Alex- 
ander  Mactier  of  New  York,   and   Lydia,  who 


Page  fortY-one 


view    from    Fidelity    Trust    Co.    Site    In    1916    looking    west 
towards   the   Old    State   House 


Hevvins  and  Tisdale 


was  the  sec(jnd  wife  of  Philip  \'erplanck  Hoff- 
man, uncle  of  the  late  Dean  Hoft'nian  of  New 
York.  A  daughter  of  Lydia  (Osborn)  Hoffman 
married  the  \'icomte  Treilhard  of  Paris,  and  had 
daughters  who  married  into  the  French  nobility. 

In  1824,  George  B.  Osborn,  son  of  John,  sold 
the  store.  Number  One  Long  Wharf,  to  Simon 
Kollock  Hewins.  ]\lr.  Hewins  was  a  native  of 
Sharon.  He  married  Caroline,  daughter  of 
Colonel  Daniel  Brown.  Mr.  Hewins  was  in  the 
leather  business,  and  in  1825  took  as  a  partner 
Mace  Tisdale.  The  firm  of  Hewins  and  Tisdale 
not  only  dealt  in  skins  and  hides,  but  also  in 
"shoe  notes,''  Mr.  Tisdale,  as  a  director  in 
the  New  England  Bank,  having  facilities  for 
handling  that  kind  of  securities.  In  1844  Hewins 
transferred  to  Tisdale  his  interest  in  the  propert}- 
including  the  adjoining  store,  2  Long  Wharf, 
which  Hewins  acquired  in  1833  from  Levi 
Bartlett. 

:\Ir.  Bartlett  bought  2  Long  Wharf  in  1821 
fr(»m  Benjamin  Brown's  heirs,  having  occupied 
it  previously  as  a  tenant  for  several  years.  Mr. 
Bartlett  was  a  dealer  in  West  India  Goods. 
For  different  years  he  had  as  partners  Aaron 
Woodman  and  Eben  T.  Farrington,  and  occupied 
stores  at  other  locations  (7  South  Market  Street 
and  7  Long  WHiarf ) ;  but  in  1849  he  returned  to 
2  Long  Wharf  as  Levi  Bartlett  c\:  Co.  In  1858 
the  location  became  146  and  148  State  Street. 
Later  the  firm  became  Farrington  ( Eben  T.). 
Tozier  (Andrew  S. )  and  Hall  (Elvcn  D.) 


I'lijic  tortyliinc 


Occupants  in  the  Last  Century 


In    1885    Dudley   Hall,   grocer,   occupied   the 
store. 

In  1835,  Henry  Hitchcock  and  Nathaniel  C. 
Nash,  grocers,  were  located  at  2  Long  Wharf, 
and  in  1845  Isaac  Nash,  grocer,  was  to  be  found 
there.  The  building  at  the  corner  of  Chatham 
Street,  Number  One  Long  Wharf,  was  occupied 
by  its  owners,  Tisdale  and  Hewins,  till  1844, 
when  they  removed  to  82  Water  Street.  At  that 
time  Mr.  Hewins  resided  on  the  corner  of 
Boylston  Street  and  Head  Place,  a  locality  at 
the  present  time  wholly  devoted  to  business 
houses.  His  partner,  Mr.  Tisdale,  resided  at  15 
Rowe  Street,  now  known  as  Chauncy  Street. 
The  cellar  of  1  Long  Wharf  was  occupied  for 
many  years  b}^  victuallers  who  supplied  the 
wants  of  many  laboring  in  the  vicinity  or  visitors 
to  the  Custom  House  or  Market.  Among  the 
occupants  were  Phineas  Sawyer  (1825),  Constant 
Southworth  and  Mark  Nutter  (1835).  In  1844 
Stephen  S.  &  E.  W.  Stone,  druggists,  succeeded 
Tisdale  and  Hewins  as  occupants.  In  1854, 
Alfred  B.  Hall  &  Co.  (William  F.  Matchett  and 
Daniel  Perkins,  junior)  removed  from  57  Broad 
Street  to  1  Long  Wharf.  They  were  in  business 
as  merchandise  brokers,  and,  in  1865,  F.  N. 
Thatcher  was  the  junior  partner.  Here  also 
was  located  Hall,  Caldwell  &  Co.,  of  which  Seth 
Caldwell,  junior,  was  a  resident  of  Philadelphia. 
A.  B.  Hall  &  Co.  occupied  the  corner  till  1902. 

In  1903,  William  Bond  &  Son,  Chronometers, 
removed  to  148  State  Street  from  the  location 


Page  forty-jive 


William  Bond,  Chronometers 


next  door,  where  they  had  been  for  several  years. 
Before  that  they  were  at  112  State,  moving  there 
from  97  Water  Street.  At  the  time  of  the  Great 
Fire  of  1872  they  were  at  17  Congress  Street. 
Their  business  was  located  on  this  last  street 
for  66  years.  The  firm  dates  back  to  1793,  when 
William  Bond,  watchmaker,  was  located  at  Z2 
Marlborough  (Washington)  Street. 

In  1897,  as  an  heir  of  the  Tisdale  estate,  there 
was  conveyed  the  buildings  144,  146  and  148 
State  Street  to  John  Tisdale  Bradlee,  a  son  of 
John  Rice  Bradlee  and  Frances  Ann  Tisdale,  the 
only  child  of  Mace  Tisdale.  His  mother,  a  sister 
of  the  wife  of  S.  K.  Hewins,  was  a  daughter  of 
Lieut.  Col.  Daniel  Brown,  a  Boston  printer. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  rise  of  the  values 
of  real  estate  on  State  Street,  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Custom  House,  as  evidenced  in  the  assessed 
valuations  of  the  sites  144,  146  and  148  State 
Street  for  the  last  century.  The  two  wooden 
stores,  1  and  2  Long  Wharf,  valued  at  $2,800 
each  in  1798,  had  by  1815  been  replaced  by  two 
brick  stores.  1  Long  Wharf  in  1815  was  assessed 
for  $12,000;  2  Long  Wharf  was  taxed  for  $6,000. 

In  1825  Number  One,  the  corner,  was  assessed 
at  $16,000,  Number  two  at  $11,600.  In  1835 
the  figures  had  risen  to  $18,000  and  $12,000,  the 
result  of  the  opening  of  Chatham  Row  in  1827. 
In  1845  the  corner  building  $28,000  and  the  next 
building  $18,000. 

In  1855  both  had  increased  in  ten  years  in 
value  $7,000  to  $35,000  and  $25,000.     At  the  end 


Page  forty-six 


Valuations  for  100  Years 


of  the  Civil  War  in  1865,  1  Long  Wharf  had 
become  144  State  Street,  valued  at  $55,000,  and 
2  Long  Wharf  was  146  and  148  State,  valued  at 
$33,000.  After  the  Great  Fire  of  1872,  the  values 
as  shown  in  1875  were  $65,000  and  $38,000. 

In  1885  a  depreciation  is  shown  to  $40,000  for 
the  corner,  144,  and  $31,000  for  numbers  146  and 
148. 

In  ten  years,  in  1895,  a  slight  rise  appears  to 
$56,000  and  $44,000.  Of  this  the  valuations  of 
the  buildings  were  $5,000  each. 

In  1905  the  property  had  doubled  in  value 
during  the  ten  years.  The  valuation  of  $100,000 
for  the  two  buildings  in  1895  had  become 
$202,000  in  1905.  The  past  ten  years  has  added 
another  $100,000,  and  from  its  near  location  to 
the  Custom  House  an  increase  may  be  expected 
for  future  decades. 


Page  forty-seven 


Sr^wT    '.^''ii'    A ''•-"•■-**"  "'S-'S^-'   '^''k<:Jffi-  i' l^^i  V'-PSiJt "ttVr,-'^^-'^'\2 


New    Fififltty    Trvist    Company    Building 
Erected  on   Site  of  Crown   Coffee   House 


Page  forty-nine 


MR.    JAMES   G.    FERGUSON 
President    Fidelity    Trust    Company 


THE  FIDELITY  TRUST  CO. 


New  times  demand  new  men,  new  methods, 
new  ideas,  new  institutions,  and  so  as  the  old 
Crown  Coffee  House  gav'e  way  to  buildings 
adapted  to  the  spirit  of  the  time,  the  march  of 
progress  again  demands  that  these,  in  turn,  give 
way  to  a  building  commensurate  with  20th 
centur\-  conditions.  Accordingly  there  came 
into  being  the  Fidelity  Building,  burrowing  deep 
into  the  bowxls  of  the  earth,  far  deeper  than  was 
the  old  Crown  Coft'ee  House  in  height,  with 
foundations  to  keep  back  the  waters  of  the 
nearby  harbor,  upon  which  rested  the  piles  of 
the  Crown  Coft'ee  House,  and  lifting  its  head 
high  into  the  air,  eleven  stories  above  the  ground. 

Fifty  years  ago,  one  would  hardly  hazard 
the  guess  that  the  old  Crown  Coff'ee  House 
site  would  be  adapted  for  a  structure  such  as 
the  Fidelity  Building.  State  Street,  at  that 
point,  hardly  warranted  an  investment  in  an 
office  building  of  over  three  quarters  of  a  millicm 
dollars;  in  fact,  within  the  last  half  decade,  such 
an  investment  would  have  been  considered  the 
dream  of  the  speculator  rather  than  the  judgment 
of  men  directing  the  affairs  of  an  institution,  con- 
sisting of  the  conservative  element  of  metropoli- 
tan life :  accordingly  one  might  be  led  to  ask, 
"Whv  now?"     Then  the  answer. 


Page   fifty-one 


FRANK   F.    McLEOD 
Treasurer   Fidelity   Trust    Company 


Bank  consolidations  of  the  last  two  decades 
have  gradually  removed,  from  the  great  market 
section  of  Boston,  financial  institutions  which 
were  formerly  in  close  personal  touch  with  this 
class  of  their  customers,  who  by  the  very  nature 
of  their  daily  vocations,  were  men  who  rubbed 
elbows  with  their  neighbors.  They  bought  their 
goods  from  the  farmer  direct,  proverbially  un- 
accustomed to  conventional  methods.  They 
sold  their  wares  to  the  every-day  grocer,  who, 
by  dealing  direct  with  the  consumer,  was  obliged 
to  bring  himself  close  to  his  customers;  thus,  by 
the  very  nature  of  this  relationship,  the  market 
man  required  close  personal  contact  with  all  men, 
not  excepting  the  banker,  to  whom  he  entrusted 
his  funds  for  safe  keeping. 

Recognizing  their  own  need,  a  number  of  these 
market  men  met  together  and  decided  to  organ- 
ize a  banking  institution  which  would  more 
truly  represent  that  group  of  business  men  of 
which  they  were  a  part.  Thus,  in  the  early  part 
of  1913  was  born  an  idea — an  idea  which  cul- 
minated, on  May  15,  1913,  in  the  opening  to  the 
public  of  the  Fidelity  Trust  Company. 

The  new  bank  engaged  quarters  in  the  Board 
of  Trade  building,  formerly  occupied  by  an 
institution  now  merged  with  another  State  Street 
Bank,  The  first  president  was  Mr.  Leonard  H. 
Rhodes,  a  man  known  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  City  as  one  of  Boston's  most 
successful  grocers;  a  self-made  man  and  one 
who,  for  many  years,  had  been  on  the  closest 
and  most  intimate  terms  with  the  men  of  the 
market  district.     Feeling  the  strain  of  the  added 


Page   fifty-three 


MStMtH^Saim^^i 


EDWARD    C.    DONNELLY 
Vice-President 


duties  thus  thrust  upon  him,  Mr.  Rhodes,  at  the 
end  of  the  first  3'ear,  asked  to  l)e  relieved  of  his 
office. 

Again,  however,  Destiny  came  to  the  rescue, 
when  Mr.  Rhodes  consented  to  act  as  one  of  the 
vice-presidents.  After  nmch  persuasion,  the 
directors  succeeded  in  securing  a  man  to  fill  the 
vacancy  thus  created  in  the  person  of  Mr. 
James  G.  Ferguson,  one  of  two  brothers  who 
had  built  up  the  largest  baking  business  in  the 
East;  a  man  who  also  had  close  personal  rela- 
tions with  the  group  of  men  who  had  first 
conceived  the  idea  of  the  institution,  and  thus, 
through  the  four  years  of  its  existence,  the 
Fidelity  Trust  Co.  has  justified  its  being. 

Problems  have  presented  themselves,  but  they 
have  been  solved;  for  the  Trust  Company  has 
proved  itself  a  necessity  to  the  community  which 
it  serves.  In  no  way  is  this  more  apparent, 
perhaps,  than  in  the  steady  growth  of  its  de- 
posits, which  have  been  at  the  rate  of  one  million 
and  a  half  dollars  per  year. 

When  first  organized,  the  capital  of  the 
Fidelity  Trust  Company  was  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  with  a  sur])lus  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  The  strong,  healthy  growth 
of  its  business,  however,  soon  indicated  that  a 
larger  capital  was  necessary,  and,  two  years 
ago,  the  stockholders  voted  to  increase  the 
capital  to  one  million  dollars,  with  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  surplus,  and  the  additional 
capital  was  soon  over-subscribed.  So  successful 
was  the  growth  of  the  institution  that  once  more 
it    became    necessary    to    increase    the    capital. 


Page  fifty-five 


iAMii.0    D.    HENDERSON 
Vice-President 


and  the  rtgure  was  placed  at  two  million,  with 
$400,000  surplus,  and  this  issue  was  over-sub- 
scribed. Not  even  then,  however,  did  those 
guiding  its  afifairs  dream  that,  within  a  short 
year,  the  growth  of  the  bank  would  demand 
greatly  enlarged  quarters,  but  again  were  the 
ideas  of  its  founders  justified,  and  then,  as  new 
times  demanded  new  conditions,  it  resulted  in 
the  erection  of  this  beautiful  new  building  of 
limestone  and  steel,  designed  by  Mr.  C.  J. 
Warren,  assisted  by  a  group  of  men  who  have 
scoured  the  country  for  the  latest  and  best  ideas 
in  office  building  construction.  The  building  was 
erected  by  the  J.  J.  Prindiville  Co.,  who  a  short 
while  ago  completed  the  new  armory  on  Com- 
monwealth Avenue  for  the  State,  and  who  bring 
to  their  task  experience  gained  in  erecting  many 
of  the  larger  and  more  beautiful  buildings  in  our 
Commonwealth. 

The  market  district  which  the  Fidelity  Trust 
Company  serves  in  a  larger  measure  than  any 
other  part  of  the  city,  has  maintained  its  general 
characteristics  for  a  period  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years.  The  contour  of  the  lower  part  of 
the  city  has  been  somewhat  changed,  reaching 
out  more  and  more  toward  the  harbor,  and 
today,  the  water  front  which  formerly  extended 
up  as  far  as  the  Custom  House,  is  extended 
beyond  the  borders  of  Atlantic  Avenue.  Our 
institution  now  serves  this  district,  being  the 
nearest  bank  to  the  entire  water  front  from 
Rowe's  Wharf  to  the  Charlestown  Bridge.  The 
area  covered  by  this  district  is  almost  entirely 
business   and   the  possibilities   for   the   develop- 


Page  fifty-seven 


KI>\VI.\'    T.     McKXiaHT 

\"irc-Pri'Si(leiit 


ment  of  banking  interests  in  this  territory  is 
hardly  to  be  measured  by  any  precedent  of  the 
past.  It  is  not  too  much  to  expect  that  within 
the  next  decade,  the  FideHty  Trust  Company 
will  serve  this  area  in  a  larger  deoree  than  any 
other  banking  institution  in  the  city. 

The  directors  of  the  Fidelity  Trust  Company 
are  justly  proud  of  their  bank  and  of  its  growth. 
They  have  sown  and  they  have  reaped,  not 
tares  or  thorns;  the  seed  has  fallen  upon 
fertile  soil.  The  acorn  which  they  have  planted 
is  growing  into  the  mighty  oak.  Theirs  is  the 
just  pride  of  accomplishment  of  making  two 
blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  but  one  formerly 
grew.  Thus  cities,  states  and  nations  come 
into  beins". 


'&• 


JAMES  D.  HENDERSON. 


Page  Ji/ty-nine 


LEONARD   H.    RHODES 
Vice-President 


litfi 


JAMES   H.    YORK 
Vice-President 


ex 


C.     B       WEBSTER     «t     CO    .     BOSTON 


iiiAiNn  am  « 


\ 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


\ 


y 


2/92  Series  9482 


* 


SANTA  eA«aARA   0 


X 


y 


\ 


/ 


AA    000  877  070    3 


/ 


0  v«v«»fy«  viNW<  Q 
I 


j  U"t 


CP 


m 


s 

^v 

r' 

•< 
u 

5 

ft 

i 

8 

•  viH«oflir>  io  o 


•    UIMlAMn  Mi    • 


\ 


3  1205  02129  6213 


1? 


e       kll'.tlAINH     if. 


«    SANTA  KAteAtA    ° 


"      AllSalAiNn    IHl     " 


\ 


I! 


to  Airmi  »u 


O    TMC  UNIVttSirV    • 


/ 


•  SANTA  kAttAI(A  • 


\ 


O      l"C    WMlVt" 


a^ 


o 

TH{   IIBRAIY  Of 

0^ 

^ 

i 

c 
Z 

s 

2 

5 

3 

VlN10iil»D    K)     « 


THt  ItUAtV  C0    • 


I  cjri 


m^ 


o  VWWVt  ViNVt  • 

i 


/ 


.0    AUUUAlNn  Ml    • 


I 

\ 


O    TMt  UNTVtlSITV    • 


